William M. Clemons Jr.

Bil Clemons is the Hanisch Memorial Professor of Biochemistry at Caltech and a Program Officer in Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). He received his PhD from the University of Utah, where he worked under Prof. Venki Ramakrishnan. During this time, Prof. Clemons spent two years as a visiting scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. A notable achievement during his graduate work was his contribution to the team that solved the first atomic resolution structure of the small ribosomal subunit, which facilitated a fundamental understanding of the translation of the genetic code and earned a Nobel Prize for his advisor. Following that, he became a Damon-Runyon Cancer Research postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, working under Profs. Tom Rapoport and Steve Harrison. During this period, he elucidated the structure of the ubiquitous protein translocation channel. Prof. Clemons established his independent research group at Caltech in 2006. Prof. Clemons has received numerous accolades, including membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences (2022) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2024), a fellow of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2022), a Searle Scholar (2007), , and the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2011). He is a renowned mentor noted for his extensive contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion and has received one of Caltech’s two highest honors, the Shirley Malcom Prize for Mentoring (2024). In August 2023, he joined the CZI Science team.